Blair says global climate talks need new initiative
By David Fogarty
MAKUHARI, Japan, March 15 (Reuters) - Former British prime minister Tony Blair urged the world's top greenhouse gas emitters on Saturday to launch a revolution to fight climate change and said he'll work to sell a new global framework to slash carbon emissions.
Blair told a gathering of G20 nations, ranging from top carbon emitter the United States to Indonesia and South Africa, that the call to action was clear and urgent and believed part of the solution was a renaissance for nuclear power.
"We have reached the critical moment of decision on climate change. There are few, if any, genuine doubters left, Blair told G20 energy and environment ministers in Chiba, near Toyko.
"If the average person in the United States is say, to emit per capita, one tenth of what they do today and those in Britain or Japan one fifth, we're not talking of adjustment, we're talking about a revolution," he told delegates.
The average American emits the equivalent of about 24 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. In China the figure is about four tonnes.
The talks in Chiba are billed as a dialogue, not a negotiation, and ministers are meeting to discuss ways to curb carbon emissions, technology transfer, funding schemes for developing nations to pay for clean energy as well as adaptation.
Ministers at the talks were being ferried around in fuel-cell powered cars, and supporting staff were served traditional "bento" lunches with reusable boxes and chopsticks, instead of the more common throw-away versions.
Blair, as prime minister, had pushed for climate change to become a central issue at the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005. But he met resistance from President George W. Bush as well as China and India on any moves to try to agree emissions reductions targets.
At last year's G8 summit in Germany, leaders issued a statement calling for strong and early action and said a global reduction goal must be agreed. But the statement stopped short of supporting a 50 percent reduction in emissions by 2050 that Japan and the EU backed.
INITIATIVE
Blair said a global deal that brought rich and poor nations together in the fight against climate change was vital. He also said U.N.-led talks launched in Bali last December were the right forum to work on a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol by the end of 2009 that binds all nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
But he said a new initiative was needed to inform and advise the U.N.-led talks and that he would lead the work politically.
He said the Climate Group, a non-profit body backed by industry and government, would assemble a group of experts to try to sketch out what a global deal would look like.
"We will publish a report in June before Japan's G8 summit and then carry on the work so that we can feed a final report into the G8 and U.N. negotiations next year," he said.
"There are, of course, plenty of solutions out there. But if they don't fly politically, they are of no earthly use," he added.
He said the report would focus on the effectiveness of carbon cap-and-trade systems, global sectoral deals in polluting industries, generation of funds for research and development, technology transfer and deforestation, among other issues.
"Personally, I see no way of tackling climate change without a renaissance of nuclear power. There will have to be a completely different attitude to the sharing of technology and to the patent framework that allows it," he added. -- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: blogs.reuters.com/environment/ (Additional reporting by Chisa Fujioka and Chikafumi Hodo in Makuhari; Editing by )
MAKUHARI, Japan, March 15 (Reuters) - Former British prime minister Tony Blair urged the world's top greenhouse gas emitters on Saturday to launch a revolution to fight climate change and said he'll work to sell a new global framework to slash carbon emissions.
Blair told a gathering of G20 nations, ranging from top carbon emitter the United States to Indonesia and South Africa, that the call to action was clear and urgent and believed part of the solution was a renaissance for nuclear power.
"We have reached the critical moment of decision on climate change. There are few, if any, genuine doubters left, Blair told G20 energy and environment ministers in Chiba, near Toyko.
"If the average person in the United States is say, to emit per capita, one tenth of what they do today and those in Britain or Japan one fifth, we're not talking of adjustment, we're talking about a revolution," he told delegates.
The average American emits the equivalent of about 24 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. In China the figure is about four tonnes.
The talks in Chiba are billed as a dialogue, not a negotiation, and ministers are meeting to discuss ways to curb carbon emissions, technology transfer, funding schemes for developing nations to pay for clean energy as well as adaptation.
Ministers at the talks were being ferried around in fuel-cell powered cars, and supporting staff were served traditional "bento" lunches with reusable boxes and chopsticks, instead of the more common throw-away versions.
Blair, as prime minister, had pushed for climate change to become a central issue at the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005. But he met resistance from President George W. Bush as well as China and India on any moves to try to agree emissions reductions targets.
At last year's G8 summit in Germany, leaders issued a statement calling for strong and early action and said a global reduction goal must be agreed. But the statement stopped short of supporting a 50 percent reduction in emissions by 2050 that Japan and the EU backed.
INITIATIVE
Blair said a global deal that brought rich and poor nations together in the fight against climate change was vital. He also said U.N.-led talks launched in Bali last December were the right forum to work on a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol by the end of 2009 that binds all nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
But he said a new initiative was needed to inform and advise the U.N.-led talks and that he would lead the work politically.
He said the Climate Group, a non-profit body backed by industry and government, would assemble a group of experts to try to sketch out what a global deal would look like.
"We will publish a report in June before Japan's G8 summit and then carry on the work so that we can feed a final report into the G8 and U.N. negotiations next year," he said.
"There are, of course, plenty of solutions out there. But if they don't fly politically, they are of no earthly use," he added.
He said the report would focus on the effectiveness of carbon cap-and-trade systems, global sectoral deals in polluting industries, generation of funds for research and development, technology transfer and deforestation, among other issues.
"Personally, I see no way of tackling climate change without a renaissance of nuclear power. There will have to be a completely different attitude to the sharing of technology and to the patent framework that allows it," he added. -- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: blogs.reuters.com/environment/ (Additional reporting by Chisa Fujioka and Chikafumi Hodo in Makuhari; Editing by )
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